Once a year I try to make a big batch of chow-chow and then stock it away for when the fresh peas are harvested. Of course, we eat it along the year, but I always keep an eye on how many jars are left to ensure we have some come pea time!
I usually find myself making my chow-chow around late fall into winter. Since the main ingredient is cabbage, I wait till my garden produces enough big, crunchy heads of cabbage to use for the recipe.
I grew up watching my Momma can things--if that woman could harvest it, jam it, relish it.. she was going to put it in a mason jar for future consumption. I was always fascinated by the rows of neatly stacked mason jars with their various colors of food contents. I knew that each one held some sort of treat! But for some reason, I was very intimidated by canning--I had this fear that I was going to give some one Botulism. I'm sure the fear developed from watching some documentary show about bad canning technique.
A few years back I got over my fear when I ended up with an over abundance of cabbage in my fall garden. It was just one of those years that Mother Nature sprang everything to life in mass quantities. And since I hate to waste my beautiful garden produce, I looked into cabbage recipes. After many nights of cooked cabbage, cabbage casserole, cabbage soup... you name it, I needed something else to do with it. That's when I came across a chow-chow recipe.
I sucked up my fear, broke out my Momma's old canning guide from many moons ago, and went to experimenting. I shredded the cabbage, added salt, and let it soak for a night. The next day, I did as the recipe directed--added tomatoes, onions, peppers of all sorts, and spices galore! When I started cooking it, I could smell the wonderful aromas so I stuck my head over the pot to get a better sniff and about burned my eye balls out with the onion/pepper fumes! Holy-moly!
I got out my collection of mason jars and washed them in the dish washer... maybe twice just to make sure the bacteria was dead and I wouldn't have botulism stuck in any cracks. I boiled them as directed... maybe longer... you know that entire botulism thing?
The first time I tried adding the hot mixture to the hot jar was comical... and painful. I may have burnt myself once or twice. The next time I did canning I was sure to purchase some neat little gadgets that would help out tremendously in the pouring process. Lesson learned.
After they were canned up, back in the hot water bath they went for a while before coming to their final resting place on the kitchen counter for full cooling. After having a few years of canning under my belt now, I think besides eating the goodness, my favorite part of it is hearing the little jars "pop" as they cool. That little pop of the lid always excites me!
Don't be afraid of the botulism!
With love,
Reynie
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